Sometimes when I visit some blogs, I encounter the problem of “long” home page (index of the blog). Which means I have to scroll a long way down from the top of the home page before reaching the bottom of the home page. First impression wise, the outcome of such long home page giving the audience a very “imbalance” feel of the entire page layout, in other words, “ugly”.
The “long” home page phenomenon occurs when:
(1) Too many long posts appear on the first page.
(2) Too many widgets along the sidebar.
Such problems can be solved by implementing suitable blog theme / template and arrangement of the blog contents.
For long sidebar content, keep only the essential widgets as too many widgets can also affect the loading speed of your blog. If you must include all the existing widgets that make your home page “long”, it’s time for you to pick another blog theme / template. For instance, switching from 2 columns layout to 3 columns.
For long posts, you can set the number of posts to be displayed in the front page, say 5 to 7 posts per page. Another method is to use the “Read More” or “Click to continue” feature.
If you are reading this post from the index page, you probably have clicked on the […more] to continue reading this post. That’s the built in tag in the WordPress platform. This is really a great feature which I strongly encourage bloggers to use it whenever you are posting a long post.
For those who blog in Blogger (blogspot), it’s not the end of the day. There are several Blogger hacks that allow you to have similar feature. In Blogger, it is also referred as “Expandable Post Summaries“. If you are using the Blogger Classic template, you can refer to this tutorial for further explanation. And if you are using the New Blogger (XML Blogger Layout), you can refer this very good tutorial with detail steps and explanation on adding the “Read More” feature to your blog posts.
Why should you use “Read More”?
(1) Neat & Tidy
The “Read More” feature will definitely “cut off” long posts and leave a more tidy feel to the overall blog interface. Hence no more untidy long posts in the front page of the blog.
(2) Encourage Further Reading
You want your visitors to stay longer rather than come and go. If you have interesting extract (summary post) as the beginning of the post, it is more likely to encourage your visitors to continue reading your posts, which you have put in lots of effort.
(3) Increase Post/Page Views
This point is similar to the previous one. When you successfully get your readers to read further, at the same time, you are encouraging more page views. It’s another tactic of indirectly getting more hits for your page.
(4) Sort Out Interested Topics
Not every post you write is something that your readers want. Instead of “forcing” your readers to read every single long posts you have at your index page, when you implement the “Read More” feature, your readers can easily sort out the posts that they are interested in. Save up their time to get what they really need.
(5) Stimulate Creative Writing Skills
You start to learn how to write in an interesting way. The starting of a post must be eye catching or at least be able to attract your readers to read further. Writing an interesting abstract of your long post is the key.
What is the measurement of a “long” home page?
I personally think that, a page that require us to scroll down for a long time is considered a long page. It also depends on your blog layout. If your blog content is longer than your sidebar, or the other way round, which cause the audience to scroll down for some time before reaching the bottom of the page – that is a LONG home page.
Do you use “Read More” feature in your blog posts? Share your experience with us.
By daniel on May 26, 2008
I am religiously using the Read More function. Usually the first post which appear on my blog will not be assigned with Read More. The second, third and so forth will be assigned with Read More.
I think doing so allows my reader to read the first post thoroughly and they have the option to browse from the top to the bottom of my blog.
